Title

Author

Date of Award

5-11-2016

Document Type

Thesis and Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Rocio Rivadeneyra

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find a way to measure helicopter parenting that directly reflects its conceptual definition that has been established by Cline and Fay (1990). Literature has pointed to several parenting dimensions that constitute helicopter parenting (Kins & Soenens, 2013; Klein & Pierce, 2009). Rather than looking at helicopter parenting as a qualitatively distinct approach to parenting, this study attempted to show that parenting dimensions established in existing literature are what constitutes helicopter parenting. Helicopter parenting should be looked at as falling on an extreme end of the spectrum of different parenting dimensions. A total of 500 participants were recruited for this study, 353 of which were retained with a majority identifying as Caucasian and female. Specifically, measures of parental overprotection, care, psychological control, behavioral control, involvement, responsiveness, autonomy support, and a separate measure that has been created to look at helicopter parenting were used to evaluate participants’ reported experience of parenting behaviors. Measures of coping efficacy, interpersonal dependency, and psychological well-being were used to evaluate outcomes associated with helicopter parenting. The results indicated that the proposed measure of helicopter parenting was found to be both a reliable and valid measure of this phenomenon. The study supported the multidimensional aspect of the proposed measure and further suggests that helicopter parenting behaviors should be looked at separately in regards to outcomes associated with this phenomenon.